Curated playlist
18th-century French male writers
- VoltaireThe line Voltaire is most quoted for was written in 1906, long after he died.
- Denis DiderotJailed writer Denis Diderot annotated Paradise Lost with a toothpick and ink made from slate and wine.
- MontesquieuMontesquieu published The Spirit of Law anonymously in 1748, and the Church banned it in 1751.
- Maximilien RobespierreRobespierre was executed without trial in 1794 by the movement he had helped build.
- Marquis de SadeOn the 2nd of July 1789, the Marquis de Sade stood at a window of the Bastille and shouted through a megaphone he had improvised himself. He told the people in the street below that the warders were murdering the prisoners. That evening he…
- Jacques Antoine Hippolyte, Comte de GuibertIn 1770, Guibert's essay predicted a nation with a national army would rule Europe. It came before Napoleon.
- Antoine LavoisierAntoine Lavoisier, who named oxygen, was guillotined in Paris in 1794. He was also a tax collector.
- François CatrouA Jesuit priest who founded a major journal also wrote a 21-volume history of Rome. François Catrou did both.
- Charles-François LebrunA relative stole the record of his prosecution, saving Charles-François Lebrun from the guillotine.
- Louis Carrogis CarmontelleLouis Carrogis Carmontelle built a machine that rolled painted landscapes past a backlit window.